Guten Tag!

[DCade]

Hello all,

I've read this forum for nearly a year now, so I decided to register. Currently I have zero sailing experience. I have time at sea from being in the Marines, but I don't count that as sailing. I plan to remedy that situation by building a dinghy and learning what I can here in Arkansas. I also plan on taking offshore classes as time permits over the next few years.

My partner - we live in sin - and I have decided that within the next ten years we will take our family on a long term (at least 2 years) cruise of the Caribbean. That should give us plenty of time for everyone to learn to sail, and our three daughters, now 6, 4, and 2, will be old enough to actively participate in the journey. Those years will also give us plenty of time to find the right boat and build a kitty to support our life at sea.

Call us dreamers, idiots, and fools, but remember, most cruisers started with similar dreams. We understand that the cruising life is not filled with days lounging in the sun and drinking rum. As of now, we are both more scared of being on a boat with three teenage girls than being covered in engine crud and marine toilet overflow.

Fair winds and following seas.

[westsail374]

Welcome! Lots of good advice, encouragement, and helpful lessons learned here.

You folks have a great time ib store for yourselves. Time spent together sailing is the best time a family can have!

[goboatingnow]

welcome aboard

My partner - we live in sin

Nice place,lots of folk live there, must be the weather or something!.

DAve

[boatman61]

Hi DCade... Welcome to CF
I've heard of crappier dreams than yours mate.. may your course be true..

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, dreamers, idiots, and fools (Dcade).

[Waterway Guide]

Welcome aboard!

[DCade]

Thank you, everyone. I will mostly sit back and read the forum for a while, but I already have plenty of questions.

The first is probably better for another thread, but I'll go ahead and mention it here.

I'm not in a rush to buy a boat, but I'm leaning to a Cat Ketch rig already. I read that they are easy to sail, cheaper to maintain in the long run, and they are not horrible to wind (assuming a good hull design.)

Any thoughts that aren't already covered in the older threads? Know an owner who'd let me crew after I get some experience? Know of any can't miss deals in your area?

[Neo]

DCade,

You gave me a flashback. Ten years ago I was sitting in a Mercury 15 on the Charles River with my wife and three kids (ages 4, 7 and 10 at the time). I had the main sheet in my teeth, and was sweating bullets and cursing the elements.

For what it's worth:

1. We didn't buy right away. I joined community boating clubs instead. No wasted time on boat maintenance while learning, lots of people and staff to learn from and with, and the price of membership is very reasonable.
2. We slowly moved up in boat size, 3 years in a Merc 15ft, 3 years on a Rhodes 19, 2 years on a Ranger 23 and Olsen 25, (all club boats) and now for the last year, on our own Pearson 31. Once you get up into a plus 25ft boat, a club membership is prohibitive. Might as well buy a boat, so we did.
3. Now that we own, we spend half our time working on the boat and half sailing, and I love both equally.
4. We spent $7,000 on memberships and classes over the first 7 years of non-ownership, and $7,000 in maintenance, mooring and storage fees over the past one year of ownership.
5. Looking back, I would have liked to accelerate the process a bit, maybe. But who knows?

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and welcome aboard!
Guten tag to you too.
Good to have you here. At this economic time it is much cheaper and a great deal easier to purchase a sailing dinghy. Lots of them out there.
kind regards,

[DCade]

Again thank you all.

SkiprJohn, is there any reason (other than cost) not to build one. I enjoy building/fixing things. I'm a tinkerer, and I've about run out of home improvements/repairs. Ha.

[SkiprJohn]

Oh just that it takes much less time to purchase and learn to sail your new craft. Yes, building is fun and I've done it several times but to be honest at today's cost of a fairly good used sailing boat there just isn't much point in spending so much time on building.
You'll have many hours to tinker and work with a boat that's already sailable believe me. There are always improvement and maintenance projects even with the smallest of craft.
kind regards,

[DCade]

Thanks for the warning.

[rancher44]

Hay I have a 28' lancer with good sails and an out board motor in my barn in Okla .Great learning boat very forgiving and 3'6" draft . The boat has been in the lakes around hot springs and on beaver lake . I would make you a heck of a deal. AAnd I can deliver the boat in Ark
Call me @918-533-0213

[DCade]

Rancher44,

While that sounds wonderful, I'll have to pass right now. It's too much boat for now and not enough for later. I also don't have anything that will pull it. I appreciate the offer, and in a few years that boat might be perfect. I might get in touch with you then to find out where it is.

Thanks though,

DCade

[rancher44]

Actually for the price it is far from too much boat . I will even give you a few lessons 4500 delivered with Trailer . Yes forty five hundred